Karakorum
Setting (Andrew McGonigal 1401109) Karakorum Rebuilt Following the abandonment of the plans to rebuild the city of Karakorum in 2006, the return of the Great Khan has decreed that the city must be rebuilt as the starting point of the Great Conquest and recreation of the Mongolian Empire. However, the Khan has accepted that the world is no longer the way it once was and the nomadic lifestyle of the modern people’s ancestors’ flails in the comparison to the commodities and comforts of the modern city. So, the city was built with the all this considered and modern architecture now covers the majority of the cities landscape. Ironically however, the Great Khan and his council did not anticipate the amount of migration from the more rural areas of Mongolia to the new city of Karakorum and the city outskirts are littered with the tents and temporary buildings that was once reminiscent of the old city. Political HQ In the heart of the city sits political headquarters of Karakorum, the Government Building was built in a way to pay respects to the historical leaders of Mongolia. Statues built in the image of Ögedei, Möngke, Kublai and many other figures such as generals surround the building and serve as a reminder of the once great empire. The Great Khan has reintroduced the decree of Yassa, the laws of the old empire which strictly punished murder and rape in the city, and just like days of old, the city is governed by a non-democratic central assembly. The assembly, named the Kurultai, was a collection of the – newly elected – Mongol Chiefs which discussed both domestic and foreign policy. Each district of Karakorum is delegated and ruled over by a Mongol Chief who is pressured into doing his job correctly and to the best of his ability, as poor results are seen as a breach of power and often ends in dismemberment. Under the Khans reintroduction of Yassa, the city is incredibly tolerant of all religions and cultures as long as it is kept to themselves and doesn’t cause problems for other civilians. The Khan was bemused however that the Mongolian people were willing to abandon there old script and adopted the Cyrillic alphabet, he has decreed that the Mongolian script be introduced. Garrison As was typical of the old empire, Karakorum has a permanent garrison to defend and police the city. However, unlike the garrisons of old, the modern soldiers are equipped with modern weapons supplied by the United States post-re-enchantment. The garrison is headed by the reborn Subutai, a man known for his capture of Wayan Shouxu when Mongolia had first invaded China in the 13th Century. The garrison is in charge of maintaining law and order of the city as well and maintaining the defence of Karakorum from foreign hostile forces. The garrison is by no means to leave the city and are usually the only units thus far trained in handling both military and civilian matters. Financial District The financial district of Karakorum lays adjacent to the garrison – both of which are a stone throw away from the city centre – is where most of the cities trading takes place. Due to this the Great Khan’s council deemed it necessary to have wide roads and enough room to park many large vehicles in order to maximise on the stopping and passing trade along the silk road. To the surprise of the Great Khan, trading is not merely done by people packing camels to cross the Gobi Desert but by large trucks carrying an obscene amount of goods, however camel caravans are still a common site depending on the reserves of oil from the caravan’s origin. Just as it was back in the old empire, the Great Khan puts a great deal of importance on trade and maintains that the silk road must be protected and secure in order to encourage more people to come and trade in the city centre. The financial district for this very same reason is filled with wonderful modern architecture, clean streets and vast displays of wealth. City Outskirts Despite the great development of the city centre, the outskirts of Karakorum grew faster than the Great Khan’s council could develop, however now that many issues have been addressed since the Khans return the city is steadily catching up with the development there. The outskirts are covered in traditional yurts - a Mongolian style tent – which although fills the Khan of pleasant memories are often a thorn in his side. The area has by far the highest rates of crime throughout the city, mainly do to the under development and lack of social services in the area. Although major crimes are still very uncommon due to the strict reprisals that the Khan demands, theft and other minor crimes are frequent. The garrison must constantly patrol the area and punishments are often carried out in the streets. The city outskirts are developing but the Khan is pushing for the process to quicken so he can once again begin his conquests. Military Structure (Also Setting) Militarily speaking, the Mongolian army has seen great reforms, with modernisation being applied to an old nomadic culture. In comparison to the old soldiers who were all horse mounted with bows as their primary weapon and spears as a secondary, the modern military are all mounted on quadbikes and armed with carbine rifles as their primary weapons and spears as secondary weapons. The military at the moment is mostly used to defend and secure the silk road and the Gobi Desert from foreign aggression but is however mustering it’s forces to take back Inner Mongolia from the Chinese Regimes. At the head of the military is the reborn Oni Story Any note-worthy event in Karakorum since the re-enchantment occurred has been more or less related to the return of Genghis Khan with his army of oni soldiers. Himself a legendary oni from times past, he intends to seize this opportunity to restore the Mongolian Empire to its former glory. As soon as his return is acknowledged and using the influence of his well-known history and the army that follows him, the current government cedes control of the city to him. Some doubt whether he can be trusted, both as a known brutal conqueror and a legendary demon however since he arrived the city has grown in strength, wealth and civil rights. His methods of punishment for breaching the new laws protecting people’s rights put in place are considered old-fashioned but have proven effective in lowering crime. Various issues have faced him during his new reign however he deals with them with the same fervor and in the same fashion he did centuries ago. In the last few months there have been reports of magical accidents happening in the outskirts of the city due to the gifted not being able to control their abilities. While disenchanters are available in the city, they are often sold at extortionary prices and so the people living in poverty can’t afford to keep their powers suppressed. A particular young girl becomes infamous in the area for setting ablaze nearly anything she touches. While she can’t control this, religious unrest grows as people begin to believe she is an Iblis, a fire demon created to destroy humans. Soon this begins to escalate into a mob attempting to slay the girl. They nearly succeed before the city garrison intervenes and battles the mob into submission. The attackers are then punished severely for pushing their religious fear and violence on another. There is then a debate in the city over whether disenchanters should be made mandatory for all gifted. The Great Khan however has an idea he’d been considering for some time. The girl is brought before him and he gives her a choice: she can be given disenchanters to reduce her power and she can face the potential side-effects or that she can join his army and put them to good use, learning to control them and strengthening his forces in the process. She ends up accepting and thus he begins recruiting gifted from within the city to form a magical army, aiding in his efforts to conquer his old territory. During his reign, the Great Khan continuously sends out scouting teams out around the city to go and map out where magical creatures are located so they can know where to avoid and where to exploit. On one of these scouting missions a group, led by an oni general, comes across a cave system filled with a mineral used for magical rituals. While exploring this cave, they find themselves ambushed by a pack of feathered creatures out of the darkness. They fight but are outnumbered and attempt to flee but only a small few make it out back to the city. Upon hearing about this, Khan departs with his army with the intent of investigating this attack. When they arrive at the entrance, they are greeted by another ambush. This time, expecting the attack, the Mongols were prepared and warded the attackers off. As they are defeated, they are revealed to be tengu; jealous tricksters that resemble bird-like goblins, mostly native to Japan but known to travel if they find treasure worth the distance. Noting their vulnerable position, and making them aware of it, Khan states that he could kill all of their kind living in these parts for their assault but that he is willing to let them live for the sake of trade between their two peoples. If they give him no choice however, he will simply take the minerals by force and slay anything in his path. Seeing no other option, the tengu accept and the Mongols return home, having a new source of wealth to draw from without having to end many lives and integrating them into the silk road. In a north western district of the city, unrest was growing as the people refused to accept the sudden change to the ancient Mongol script from the Cyrillic alphabet they had been using their whole lives. While the Mongol chief responsible for this part of the city: Toqto’a tried to enforce this more harshly, the people simply responded with more aggression, refusing to be led by demons, eventually escalating into a riot. Khan has to take control and employ the vast majority of the garrison, even fighting people himself with his demonic strength. Once the rebellion is crushed, he decides to make an example of some of the riot’s instigators by taking off a few limbs. The same punishment is exacted on the no-longer chief Toqto’a for failing in his duties. Resistance was then kept at a minimum and the Great Khan made sure to employ a more forceful chief from then on. While Karakorum has objectively grown hugely, there is still much to be done. Genghis Khan’s ambition knows no end and nothing will get in his way. He has proven himself to be a formidable leader and his conquest has only just begun, all that remains to be seen is how quickly he intends to conquer the world. Sean McCann 1603742 Genghis Khan (Character) - Gabriel Kenny 1703108 In the year 1162, near the borders of Mongolia and Siberia, a boy called Temujin was born. In his right hand he held a blood clot, symbolizing him as a great leader to those who witnessed him. Despite this his early days were violent and cruel. The central Asian steppe was riddled with dozens of nomadic tribes who would fight, steal and kill. By the time he was 10 years old his father had been poisoned and his clan abandoned him, his mother and six siblings. It was at this point that the seeds of darkness and hatred first set themselves into Temujin's heart. This manifested itself in him killing his older half-brother, a decision that led both to power and responsibility as he was now in charge of the starving household. The clan which originally abandoned him kidnapping him strengthened the hatred inside him, but it was the kidnapping of his wife, Borte, which caused his transformation. Spreading from the centre of his right hand, where the blood clot had lain, a dark blue started to spread across his skin. He grew to three times the size of a man, horns surrounded by swathes of black hair sprung from his head and his strength grew tenfold. Forging quick alliances through great cunning and showing his strength he bathed the camp of those who kidnapped his wife in blood, almost accidentally killing her in the process. Despite the transformation, Temujin maintained a great amount of self-control and cunning, managing to hold himself back from hurting anyone useful to him. When attacking rival clans he would spare those warriors who would incorporate themselves into his ranks, but would meet the leaders with the full sum of his wrath, at times tearing them in two to show his strength. His strategies broke dozens of customs, as he would place allies into key positions instead of relatives, and gave no regard to family ties when placing his troops. By the year 1205 he had destroyed all of his rivals within his homeland. He called the representatives of every territory and declared, unopposed, the founding of his nation. At this point he had followers from any religion, Christian, Islamic and Buddhists to name a few. They in turn had their own names for him. Devil, Iblis, Oni. He proclaimed himself a new name, Chinggis Khan, known to us as Genghis Khan. By the year 1225 Genghis Khan, the Great Khan, the Great Oni, controlled territory ranging from the Sea of Japan to Kazakhstan. It was around this point, as he had conquered twice as much land as any other person in history, four times the size of the Roman empire, twice that of Alexander the great, that the God of Boredom turned his attention to the Khan of Khans. Genghis had avoided the curse of the God of Boredom until now by not being born as a demon, but as a mortal man, and the God of Boredom was unsure whether he should seal him away or not, given that he was still mortal and would die sooner or later anyway. The question was pondered again by the God of Boredom two years later in 1227. He realized that Genghi's followers were swiftly becoming Oni’s themselves, and that unless something was done Genghis would eventually turn the entire world into a seething mass of blue-skinned devils. And so, finding this far too exciting, on the 18th of August 1227 Genghis was sealed by the God of Boredom. That is, until climate change happened. ' ' When the Great Khan arose again he found the world a different place. Instead of the leagues of tents, fields of horses and armies waiting for his command, he found his Steppes empty and his people forgotten in small scattered villages. There were no major trade routes, no vassals to pay his nation homage. He was furious. As he stood in the heart of his former territory, thinking of all that was lost the ground beneath him began to shift. One after the other, blue and red humanoids began to rise from the ground and his Oni generals joined him in his rage. They marched to the nearest settlement and, not harming a hair on anyone's head, demanded to know who now reigns over the lands. With information at hand, they continued on to the State Great Khural, where the leaders of Mongolia sat, desperately trying to deal with the turmoil following the Re-Enchantment. As the former Great Khan closed in on the capital Ulaanbaatar small armed forces were sent out by the State but the Khans superior tactical prowess one the day, despite the contrast in technology. By the time he kicked down the doors of Parliament the President had already drafted his letter of Resignation. The following weeks consisted of the great Khan consolidating his power within the country. Despite his rage at the current size and power of Mongolia, and disappointment at the people of his nation, he thought back to days a millennia prior, when his wife was kidnapped. He overcame all the odds then, and would do so again now. His generals swept the land, demanding that the people bow to the Khans forces or be put to the sword. Only politicians were never spared, as the Khan saw their failure as an insult to his culture, and himself. Genghis even set up the required help for those being afflicted with issues from the Re-Enchantment, going so far as to summon the greatest minds of their fields from across the country so he could be brought up to speed with the technology at his command. With this technology, he swore, he would finalize his conquest of the world. Before long Karakorum was rebuilt and players could join the great hordes of Khan on the magnificent Steppes of Mongolia.